SEOUL, Korea-SK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile services provider, selected LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Nortel Networks Ltd. to provide equipment to support new high-speed wireless broadband services throughout southern Korea.
SK Telecom’s commercial launch of UMTS services in Pusan, Korea’s second-largest city, and the southern provinces of Gyeongsang-do, Jeolla-do and Jeju Island is planned for November, with commercial launch of HSDPA following in early 2006.
The technology will allow SK Telecom to deliver feature-rich services like interactive games, music downloads, DVD-quality videos, real-time multimedia collaboration and e-mail with large file transfers at speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per second.
Subscribe now to get the daily newsletter from RCR Wireless News
The contract is the second HSDPA win for LG and Nortel since the companies announced a joint venture earlier this year. The first contract was with KTF, the second-largest wireless carrier in Korea.
“The SK Telecom win is another important milestone for the LGE-Nortel joint venture, which will supply networks covering all cities and regions of the Korean peninsula,” said Peter MacKinnon, president of GSM/UMTS for Nortel. “The contract continues Nortel’s leadership in supplying UMTS/ HSDPA technology to Korea, which has the highest broadband penetration and one of the most sophisticated telecommunications markets in the world.”
Both SK Telecom and KTF have rolled out third-generation networks using both CDMA2000 and W-CDMA-based technology.
